Tech Comes to the Hinterlands

High tech is revitalizing Kalamazoo, Mich., after the polar vortex of Detroit's decline as the global automotive capital.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Technology has come to this small Midwestern town trying to retool for modern times.

I grew up here in the days when this state was driven by Detroit, then the capital of the automotive industry, the musical Mecca of Motown, and the home of the 1968 World Series champion Tigers.

But it's been tough times for a long time. Honda and Toyota ate Detroit's lunch, and more recently Hyundai and Kia have been nibbling at its breakfast, too. Detroit is now known as the poster child for municipal bankruptcy -- and not even a particularly well managed one.

Like the rest of the state, Kalamazoo got dragged down in Detroit's malaise. A cousin and a neighbor of mine worked in the vast General Motors plant here. It's been shut down for years, gradually getting back on its feet as a spruced up space for hire.

Kalamazoo had its own problems. It had its boom years riding the coattails of the Industrial Revolution as a paper-making town, a business that had mainly gone away now. Now I'm back on family business and I can see a few seeds strewn from the tech boom starting to sprout here.

My alma mater, Western Michigan University, built a whole new campus devoted to engineering, technology and research. A game developer makes its presence known in billboards around town, hoping to attract young talent. And a couple other media shops such as Kzoom have put down roots, trying to create businesses getting companies on Web video and social media sites like YouTube and Facebook.

WMU's new west campus is a bright spot for engineering and high tech in this corner of Michigan.

There are a few green shoots from the biotech boom growing here, too. The old Upjohn pharmaceuticals plant is still purring, now part of Pfizer. And Stryker has struck a little medtech gold, expanding to become one of the town's premier employers.

I hope to visit some of these spots and tell their stories when I come back in the spring for more family business. It's been a long hard winter, the hardest even the old timers here can remember. Kalamazoo helped put the term "polar vortex" into the national lexicon this winter.

But spring is coming. You can smell it on the occasional sunny day when the temperature nudges into the upper 40s and the snow starts melting, making its muddy mess along the banks of the Kalamazoo River. Something is starting to grow here again.

We on the other side of the Charles have a saying "if you can't get there on the [MBTA] Green Line, it's not worth going to." But then, East Cambrdge is accessible, but note the Kendall Square tech area.

@C.VanDorne: I poked my head into the old Gibson plant a couple years ago (I am a fingerpicking folkie).

It's mainly an empty shell with the Hertiage shop occupying a small part of it. I'm not enpugh of an afficianado of guitars (though I love my Taylor) to compare Heritage and Gibson except to say it looks like there's not as much energy around the old place as there once was.

As far as I know Heritage is still in business at the old Parsons Street factory that Gibson used to run. I don't know if they use the entire facility or just part of it since they are a small operation. I know they used to build acoustics and electrics but at some point I think they dropped the acoustics. They don't adverstise much, preferring word-of-mouth. While I have an old Kalamazoo Gibson Les Paul Signature semi-hollow body, I don't have any exposure to Heritage. I've read they are pretty good though.

In San Francisco Bay Area, tech sector is being blamed for pricing most non-tech workers and lower income people out of the housing -- and even the apartment rental -- market. Kalamazoo sounds enticing just for that reason...cheaper real estate. But again, there is that polar vortex issue and hot summers, etc.